There exists a wide variety of commercial refrigerator door assemblies. One very common type utilizes glass panel refrigerator doors, such as are illustrated in the Kurowski U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,987,782, and 3,131,421. Such refrigerator door assemblies are widely used in a variety of commercial installations of refrigerated display cases and cabinets from which purchasers may select refrigerated beverages, foods, and other products.
Commercial refrigerator door assemblies are often of the type in which glass panels are mounted in a metal supporting door frame. One or more door assemblies are generally mounted in a metal outer frame or casing, and are frequently arranged side-by-side. Each door assembly is provided with suitable sealing gaskets in order to effect efficient sealing of the display cabinet when the doors are closed.
Installation of refrigerated cabinet door assemblies of the above type is usually effected by installing a relatively large rectangular metal frame about the front of the display cabinet. The frame may include one or more vertically extending and laterally spaced vertical columns or mullions for providing the proper support and sealing surfaces for the door assemblies. After this outer frame has been put in place within the opening of the refrigerated cabinet, it must be carefully aligned so that it forms a true rectangle as nearly as possible. Clamps, wedges, and other devices may be used to align and straighten the frame before it is fixed to the cabinet opening by suitable mechanical fasteners.
Unfortunately, the installation of the frame in the above-described manner is not always performed correctly. As a result, the corners of the frame are not disposed at right angles, and the frame does not define the desired rectangular configuration. This is undesirable for several reasons. Because the frame supports each of the door assemblies for hinging movement with respect thereto, the alignment of the doors is dependent upon correct alignment of the cabinet or outer frame.
If the outer frame is misaligned, each of the doors within the frame will also be misaligned with respect thereto. As a result, all of the doors will appear to sag, and the entire face of the cabinet, with each of the doors "leaning" or "sagging" has what is referred to as a "saw-toothed" appearance. Door assemblies may also become misaligned as the result of normal wear after repeated opening and closing.
This condition is unsightly, and may adversely affect the ease of opening and closing the doors of the cabinet. More importantly, this condition may adversely affect effective sealing between the cabinet and the gaskets provided on each of the door assemblies. This obviously is very undesirable. The refrigeration unit of the refrigerated cabinet is made to work harder to the detriment of energy efficiency and maintenance, and the goods stored within the cabinet may no longer be maintained at sufficiently low temperatures to assure freshness and lack of spoilage. Thus, it is important that this condition be corrected, for the sake of both attractive appearance as well as efficient storage of refrigerated goods.
Heretofore, the correction of misaligned frames and door assemblies has been time consuming and labor intensive. It was necessary for the outer frame to be realigned. This frequently necessitated shutting off the refrigeration unit, removing the contents from the cabinet for storage elsewhere under refrigeration, and removal of the door assemblies in order to properly align the door frame. Without such corrective action, the above-described problems would continue to exist, to the detriment of efficient refrigerated storage and convenient consumer use.
Thus, the introduction of a simple, easy to install, and readily adjusted door mounting arrangement would be desirable both for new refrigerated cabinet door assemblies, as well as for retrofitting to existing refrigerated cabinet door assemblies.